Everwinter: The Forerunner Archives (44 page)

BOOK: Everwinter: The Forerunner Archives
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"Who?" Ursa demands, becoming crosser by the minute.

"Pilcrow," Altair answers without hesitation.

Ursa and I are both taken aback. "Pilcrow?" I say, stunned. "How do you know that?"

All I can think in my mind is:
I let him go. I let Pilcrow live...back in Takay...

Altair bends down, brushing aside the dirt and snow where we're standing. There are moderate depressions in the ice below it, and it takes me a second to realize that they're footprints, half buried.

Someone walked through here after the explosion.

Someone with six toes.

"An Everwinter mutant?" I say. "So what? In case you haven't noticed, this place is crawling with them. I'm sure that explosion would have drawn them in for miles. You can't know that these prints belonged to Pilcrow."

"But I do," Altair informs. "I know Pilcrow's tracks, Juno. And Everwinter mutants are afraid of fire. None would have come within a click of this place unless they had a very good reason to. Pilcrow
did
. He was trying to destroy something." His gaze falls on Ursa. "You know what I'm talking about," he says.

Stunned, I turned to
Ursa, who nods sluggishly. "Yeah," she admits, "I do. The Cortex."

"The what?" I ask. It's like I've just walked in on the middle of this conversation and have no clue
as to what's going on.

Ursa turns to me with a guilty expression. "The Cortex was the original machine I built to cure mutations," she explains. "It's what your
Father and I worked to achieve all those years ago." She hesitates. "The Box, the one that caused the mutations, was its power core." I gasp. "The Cortex," Ursa continues, "like the Box, was coded to your DNA, Juno, your pure, unmutated genome."

"Okay," I say, finally starting to get it.
Sort of.

"The Cortex, again like the Box, was built from a nearly indestructible material called Amantium. Very rare, but n
ecessary for its electro-conductive properties. A simple explosion would have barely put a scratch in it. It should still be here."

I gasp, looking around. "Where is it then?"

Ursa looks down, staring at her feet. "Right where we're standing," she replies.

I look down too.

Ursa crouches and starts swiping away at the dirt and snow, only partially frozen, revealing a smooth, metal surface.

The floor of the lab.

She keeps sweeping, finally coming to a small mound. She uncovers it, revealing a raised plate about four feet square. A series of anchor bolts sticks up out of the plate where something had once been attached. I hunker next to Ursa and see the threads on the anchors have been scoured recently, the metal shiny. Something was removed from here not long ago. 

After the explosion…

"Did Pilcrow take the Cortex?" I ask, thinking of no other explanation.

"No," Altair comes in, "b
ut he tried. Somebody stopped him."

"Somebody?" I ask.

Altair nods, moving and uncovering more footprints as he had earlier. Smaller footprints. Human footprints. He also uncovers something else; a large gash in the steel and a small, dark blue stain.

"Is that blood?" I ask.

"Pilcrow's, to be exact," Altair confirms. "Everwinter mutant blood is blue in color."

"Somebody shot Pilcrow?
” I say, crossing my arms. “It sounds to me like you're extrapolating a fair bit here.”

"No, Juno," Ursa comes to Altair's defense. "He's right. This is why I wanted to come here. My suspicions have been confirmed. Jude
wasn't
lying to you, Juno. Your Father
is
here, in Everwinter. He has the Box, and now he has the Cortex. With both, he can reverse the pulse that caused the mutations in the first place. That's why he had Traylor kidnapped when it was apparent you wouldn't go willingly to the Evernight Skytower."

"What do you mean? Why would he do that?" I'm getting overwhelmed here.

"You and Traylor share 99% genetic compatibility, Juno. If he couldn't get
you
to power the Cortex, he had to settle for the next best thing. Your brother." I gasp.

"And," Altair comes in, "if that doesn't work, he knows that you'll come after Traylor and walk right into his hands."

I shake my head, stepping away from these two, in total denial.

"You're talking about my
Father as if he's a villain!" I scowl at them. "You're wrong! Pilcrow must be behind all this! He has to be!"

"Pilcrow is part of it," Altair confirms, "but he's not the villain, Juno. Pilcrow has a deep seated hatred of your
Father that goes back to when your Mother first went into hiding. Experiments were performed on Everwinter mutants to help facilitate a cure. Many of them unwillingly." Altair hesitates. "Pilcrow's son was one of those unwilling participants."

"His son?" I'm floored.

"Yes," Ursa comes in, owning up to the deed. "I am deeply ashamed of this, Juno, but when we couldn't get enough willing subjects, your Father resorted to more desperate methods. He had Everwinter mutant children kidnapped and brought to our lab. I had my suspicions but, I... I never questioned it. I was scared to say anything. Your Father was becoming such a monster!" Ursa sobs a little, but I don't feel sympathy.

And just when I'm starting to accept her as my
Mother again.

"Pilcrow's son was one of those casualties," Altair picks up the story. "Pilcrow didn't know who was respons
ible though, not for sure. He had his suspicions though. When this lab was finally decommissioned, they buried it under the snow. Your Father hired me and a few other Assassins to guard it. They had to get out quickly because the truth about the facility's purpose had gotten out to the mutant residents of Everwinter. Riots broke out.


The Cortex was completed and in the trial phase, but it had to be abandoned. It was getting too dangerous. After that, Pilcrow gathered a crew and tried for years to dig into the facility, trying to find out who was behind the kidnapping of his son. They came close a few times, but we always stopped them. Over the next few years, my fellow Assassins and I became complacent. We underestimated Pilcrow's desire to learn the truth. He managed to get his hands on some Forerunner technology."

I nod, still sitting in the snow, recalling the Thopter and grenados back in Takay.

"They came at us after a few months of absence. We were unprepared for the shooting irons, grenados, and Thopters they brought with them. I was the only one to survive the assault. Pilcrow and his henchmen breached the facility. I didn't fully understand the technology, but I knew that if he got his hands on the Cortex, bad things could happen. I had to take the lab back. I made an escape and planned a recourse. There was no time to call for reinforcements. There weren't any anyway. I am now one of only a handful of Assassins left in the world, Juno.


Pilcrow was in control of the place for almost a month before I got back in. But that was all he'd needed. He studied the cumpewters and documents left behind. He's a very smart mutant.
Very
smart. He figured out how to reverse the pulse from the Cortex,
causing
mutations instead of curing them. I never knew. I pulled the Box from the machine, the power core. But I was waylaid. My only recourse was to head for the roof.


Pilcrow cornered me there, at the edge by the shore of the sea. He threw a grenado and I don't remember what happened after. I awoke on the ground and the Box was gone." He pauses, staring at me. "It wouldn't be until a month later, after I returned to Krakelyn and your Father, that I would learn what happened to it.”

Altair steps forward, leaning down beside me, taking my hand.

"It was Pilcrow, Juno. He’d found out the truth about your Father," he continues. "He found out that Jonathan Quinn was the one that kidnapped his son. He also figured out that the Box required your DNA to work. After reversing its effects, he transported it all the way to Krakelyn,
planting
it on the beach.
Your
beach, Juno."

From my sitting position, I fall onto my back, the weight of everything crushing me at once.

I don't know how to take all this.

"I'm sorry, Juno," Altair says. "I failed."

"My Father failed," I say, still lying on my back.

Altair nods, seeming relieved. He says: "With the Box finally activated and all humans turned mutant, Pilcrow's plan
for vengeance went off without a hitch. However, I think he assumed your family would be killed in the chaos that followed the Final Judgment. He was wrong. He didn't anticipate that you would survive, and that your Father would send you to your Mother in order to come up with a new cure. He's been tracking us ever since, burning Ursa's lab in Venecici, one step behind us until Takay. After Takay, he must have known we would head here, to try and reactivate the Cortex. That's why he blew up the lab. But it didn't work. The machine survived the explosion, and your Father took it back."

Altair pauses to let all that sink in.

I'm just... I don't know what I am right now.

"I still don't get why my
Father would send Jude after us," I say. "A man I
hate
."

"In all likelihood," Altair offers, "your
Father didn't know what Jude had done, and so thought you would trust him. Your Father was being tracked by the Deacons, remember? He couldn't risk leading them to you himself."

"Maybe," I huff, unconvinced. "This is so messed up!" I lift my numb butt out of the snow. "How could he do that to Traylor? To me? We're his children for the gods sake!"

"Juno," Altair says, "Your Father knows that the human race is doomed to sterility in a matter of a century if he doesn't do something. He may be your Father, but he was a Deacon long before that. Despite all he did to try to help your Mother, he's still a follower of the True Body Plan at heart. He's doing what he feels is right."

I shake my head and finally push to my feet.

"You know what?” I say. “
I don't wanna know any more! Not right now! I just… I need some time to think!"

I storm away from Altair
and Ursa, my brain on information overload.

I've been nothing but a pawn in a game between my
Father and Pilcrow this entire time!

Navigating the debris filled crater, I come to the edge of the shoreline, a frozen crust of water greeting my arrival. I look out across the dark, iceberg laden ocean and feel like I want to start walking in and never stop.

My whole life has been a lie!

As insane as the religion surrounding the True Body Plan is, I don't think I could
ever
justify using my children to try and get around it. My parents should have simply accepted the fact that Mother was missing a toenail and either gone into hiding as a family, or submitted her for Judgment. Instead, they tried to play gods…and the Final Judgment was the result!

I whirl around, facing Altair and Ursa.

They're still standing near the center of the crater, looking back at me but giving me the distance I need.

I stare at Ursa. It's her fault I'm in this mess!

And Traylor!

I kick at the snow in front of me.

What happens now? If we go to the Evernight Skytower and try to rescue Traylor, will Father be waiting there with open arms or with a shooting iron drawn? I don't know what this Cortex machine does, but it must be something awful. It–

I stop myself midthought.

There's something in the snow in front of me.

A face?

I stoop down, falling to my knees. I start swiping at the snow. 

It
is
a face! 

It's behind a glass wall of some sort, like a tube or a glass coffin. The glass is frosted, so I pull off my thick woolen gloves and use my fingernails to start scratching at it. I scratch until my cuticles bleed. I scratch until

I stop.

No. It can't be.

I shake my head, sure that the stress of the past hour has gotten to me. My mind has snapped.

I must be insane.

But I know that I'm not.

I'm not insane.

The face looking up at me through the glass
–dead, frozen, wide eyed–is a face I've known my entire life. It's a face I see every time I look into a pool of water, or a reflecting glass.

The face is my own.

"What the bloody hells?" I ask aloud. 

Heart hammering, I look back up toward Altair and Ursa, sure they must know what's going on here.

But they're no longer standing.

My companions
are both face down in the snow, another figure standing in their place. The figure rushes toward me.

I'm too stunned to move.

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